This is what they would have been thinking. This is not just a snake.
It's not really a snake like we know snakes. It's a supernatural being.
And it's up to something.
Third question, how would ancient people have read the story?
And this is at the point at which I think our modern elitism
sort of clouds our judgment.
We presume that, "well, people living, you know, 2000 years ago
or you know, 3000 years ago,
they would have read this story and really thought that there were talking snakes."
Really?
this is where, I'll say it again, this is where I think our elitism gets in the way.
Ancient people knew that snakes do not talk. They weren't stupid. Okay?
They knew that animals didn't talk. And so, when they encounter this in a story,
when they encounter this in a poem,
when they encounter this in some, you know, epic that that tells their story.
They're not going to think, "wow, there must have been a time when snakes talked."
What they're going to think and what they're going to suspect is;
"okay, this isn't normal. The gods must be up to something.
There's something going on with this animal. It's either a disguise,
it's a deity that comes in this form.
But there's something going on here because this isn't the way things work."
So, the gods have entered the picture because they don't play by any of the rules
of normal nature, or human experience. The gods don't play by those rules.
So, an ancient person from Egypt, when they read, you know, stories,
let's just click out to a few things. When they read one of their stories about,
animals that talk, they're going to again, intuitively know
that there's something supernatural going on.
So this is from the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary,
and I just want to read you a few sections here;
'Serpents in Egypt are also connected with occult wisdom.
The ureaus is sometimes invoked as a magician,
(the ureaus, again, is that serpentine figure that you like on the Egyptian crown
and other pieces of Egyptian art).
In this regard, it may be no coincidence
that the Hebrew word used for snake hear (nāḥāš)
evokes the similar sounding and perhaps etymologically related verb (nḥš),
meaning "to give omens", (again, to practice divination).
Many gods, especially the primeval gods, were represented in serpent form.'
Again, an Egyptian reading one of their texts, when they encounter this,
this is what they would have been thinking.
This is not just a snake, it's not really a snake, like we know snakes.
It's a supernatural being. And it's up to something.
Again, it's sort of the simplest thing in the world, when you really think about it.
Going down a little bit. 'The idea that animals in general, and serpents in particular,
could communicate with humans is common in Egyptian literature.'
Again, the ancient person… it's also common in Mesopotamian literature.
We can't go through all of this. You know,
'What does this information from the ancient Near East tell us about Genesis 3
or what does it tell us?
Because the New Testament and the development of Christian theology,
it's most common for people today
immediately to think of Satan as the serpent of Genesis 3,
but the Israelites never make that connection, (again, Satan is not a word in Genesis 3).
We cannot recover what Adam and Eve would have thought about the serpent,
but the ancient Near Eastern literature gives us an idea of some of the images
that came to mind for the Israelites living in their time and culture.
Foremost is the Association of the serpent with life and death.
Likewise, the serpent is wise, is connected with disorder and can be the enemy of God.'
Okay, that is what an Israelite is thinking.
Now, I want you to take that line, it's in the same paragraph.
'The serpent is wise, is connected with disorder and can be the enemy of God.'
And these are meaningful perspectives. Well, okay,
the Israelites may not have thought that Satan
again, because the word Satan never shows up in Genesis 3,
I get it. It's obvious. If you're looking at the Hebrew text, it's very obvious.
But here's how they would have looked at it; there's a divine being here,
who has come to the humans, Adam and Eve, either as a serpent
or in the form of again, you know, something that looks serpentine.
Whatever it was, the appearance itself doesn't really matter.
But there's a divine being here. And this is a figure who is supernatural,
who is a figure of disorder and is the enemy of God, this is the original rebel.
Okay, that much they would have known just out of the gate.
And that's really all I'm saying in Unseen Realm, you know. But there are a lot of people,
when I go out and speak at different conferences, I get some pushback on this point.
And when you think about it, this fits precisely into the ancient world.
So, I don't really care if a person is a layperson or a scholar and objects to this.
Look, it is the simplest thing in the world, an ancient person new snakes didn’t talk.
Genesis 3 is not about zoology. John is correct in Revelation 12.
And what we have here is we have a story about an original rebel in Eden,
in the Divine Council, in God's house where he lives.
Again, we talked about God's house, Eden as a mountain and a garden,
the place of the divine council. We talked about that last week.
This is not a difficult read. It's really not in Genesis 3.